floating world

reading list

I've finished a couple of novels lately and have a stack more from the library waiting for me. It's a good feeling. Last year I was distracted by house stuff and hardly read books at all.

The Language of Flowers was a really easy read, and now I'm in the thick of The Night Circus which is a bit heavier going but in a good way. Next up is Gone Girl which I have high hopes for after a couple of friends recommended it, and The Paris Wife, which I'm looking forward to because I loved A Moveable Feast. And there's also The Snow Child, which Amazon kept suggesting when I looked at other books, so I decided to give it a try (although not from Amazon, I reserved it at the local library. I love our library. They have almost everything and if they don't they'll buy it for you and send an SMS when it arrives).

And for non fiction there's a couple of parenting books - both good, but Children Are People Too seems to be a good fit for our parenting approach, I think I'll buy a copy to refer back to. I borrowed How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk (or is it the other way around?) after seeing it written about in lots of different places and it seems very sensible too, especially since the boy child is outgrowing the baby and toddler books we've had up til now and there are new things to think about.

And I got the Ottolenghi cookbook out of the library too, and have sticky-tabbed some things to make over the Easter weekend. It all looks delicious.

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Other things:

The girl child is growing up so fast. In January she moved in to a big bed, in February we stopped using nappies, and I've just realised she'll need size 4 clothes for winter (she is not two and a half yet). She's talking so much more now, from basically only using nouns when she was 2 (which worried me a bit) to now having proper conversations, which is lovely. I want to knit her a couple of things for this winter (before she can talk enough to complain that hand knits are itchy, like her brother) so have been having fun browsing through Ravelry.

The Scandi TV drama obsession continues. At the start of last year we watched The Killing. Then later in the year Clare lent me The Bridge, which was awesome. This year we watched season 2 of The Killing, which I thought was better than the first one (shorter, tighter, equally good knitwear). Now we're watching Borgen which is like The Killing but without the killings - just all the political and personal drama. The one thing that is confusing is that there seems to be only about 25 actors in Denmark so the same ones keep popping up and the nice husband from one show is a suspicious former soldier in another one which is a bit disconcerting. I also watched Girls on DVD after Christmas which I loved, it made me laugh so much, and the funny half hour epidsodes were a great change from the longer, more serious crime things we'd been watching. I really enjoyed Homeland too (although it is longer & more serious). Anxiously waiting for Season 2 of both of those.

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How about you? What are you reading? Any TV suggestions?

 

recharge, renew (and ramblings about movies and books and food)

We stayed at the beach from Boxing Day to New Years Day, and it was so good to have time to relax together*. I didn't knit, sew or play on the computer. Instead we got up early to paddle in the rockpool, swam in the ocean, saw some movies, watched The Killing on DVD**, I read books and lounged in the hammock. It felt good to have time with family and to think about the past year and plan for the new one. Now we're home, M is back to work and today is the first day of a month of Ali, Milla & I hanging out together before the term starts. Ali has helped me make a big "things to do" list,  a mixture of making things at home, visiting museums & galleries, playdates and activities outdoors (if you are in Sydney this site and this one have lots of good ideas). I think it will be fun. I'm very aware that this is the last year before my baby starts school, so I want to make the most of the time together, and the days seems to go so much smoother for all of us when we have some kind of activity out of the house planned.

*Relaxing actually began on Day 2 of the holiday, after we purchased baby gates. Day 1 was spent chasing Milla up and down stairs.

** The children did not watch The Killing on DVD. Obviously. Or go to the movies.

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The movies I saw were:

Melancholia - thought provoking, beautiful to look at, but profoundly depressing. And it frustrated me that Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsborough) had such wildly different accents even though they were supposed to be sisters. Although perhaps I am petty to be concerned by such things in the face of a rogue planet heading towards the earth.

Midnight in Paris - pure escapism, and wonderful to look at. I loved it, and it's made me want to read "A Moveable Feast" again, since so many of the characters from it were featured. The costumes in the 1920s scenes were beautiful to look at, but I couldn't work out why Inez kept wearing horribly unflattering shirt dresses in the contemporary scenes. But perhaps this was meant to contribute to her unsympathetic demeanour.

And I read:

Design*Sponge at Home - a birthday present from my mother-in-law, this is lovely to flick through. Just like a print version of the site, really.

Homer & Langley - my brother gave me this for my birthday and it is great, although again hardly a feel-good novel. It is so beautifully written though, and its brevity stops the subject matter from being overwhelming. Definitely one to read again.

Seam magazine - another present from my brother, this is the start-up issue. Lots of good stuff inside, and beautifully photographed.

Monocle magazine - my brother, who is obviously the source of all good reading material, gave this to my dad for Christmas and I borrowed it. It is interesting & beautiful to look at & full of inspiration. I am tempted to buy myself a copy of the same issue just to keep for reference. Or subscribe, but it's quite expensive.

1Q84 - I was forced to buy this for myself when I ordered some Christmas presents from Amazon UK and needed an extra item to qualify for free postage. So far it is fantastic. I know Murakami isn't everyone's cup of tea (a friend complained that he read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle when home with the flu, assumed that the strangeness was due to his high fever, and was shocked when he re-read it sans fever and found it equally hallucinogenic) but I love his style and am really enjoying this one.

Homemade and Food Safari - I don't spend much time looking through cookbooks these days, which is a shame because trying new recipes makes the grocery shopping and cooking much less of a chore. I found Homemade at the library, and it has lots of tasty and not-too-fiddly recipes. Last night we made lamb burgers with blue cheese from it, which werea nice change to the regular homemade beefburgers I make. Food Safari is based on the TV show and each chapters features a different national or regional cuisine, including lots that I enjoy in restaurants but have never tried cooking at home. This year I want to get out of my cooking rut; we eat way too much pasta. A few years ago I got in the habit of menu planning at the start of each week, pulling out a cookbook, picking 5 things and then putting the ingredients down on the shopping list. Since Milla's been eating solids I've been doing much more basic cooking, to try and make one dinner that we can all eat (hence the pasta) but I'm lucky to have children who are fairly adventurous eaters and it isn't the end of the world if I have to make a separate meal for Mark and I a couple of times a week. If anyone has suggestions for good weeknight cookbooks please let me know.

And up next on the bookshelf, for when I finish 1Q84, are The Marriage Plot and Autumn Laing, which I'm looking forward to. And I'm really really tempted to order the Colette Sewing Book and A Moveable Feast, but will wait until I've sewn from some of my unused patterns and finished the books I have on the go now.

christmas books

The tub of Christmas books has been out for a few weeks.

My favourites are the Dick Bruna Christmas Book and Another Night Before Christmas with Rob Ryan illustrations.

Ali's favourite is The Grinch and the Dear Santa book with the letters and postcards inside.

Milla likes this one because it plays Jingle Bells (over and over again), and My First Christmas because it has textured glittery stars and a pop up nativity at the end.

We've been watching a few Christmas movies and shows too. I got The Grinch DVD but it wasn't very good - much less charming than the book. Just more evidence for my theory that there are no good movies with Jim Carey in them. The Mr. Bean Christmas special has been a big hit though. And I loved watching Love Actually when it was on TV this week - it's a bit cheesy, but that's okay at this time of year.

a t-shirt

I'm very excited about this t-shirt, because it is the first knit fabric garment I've made for myself that I think I'll actually wear. Sewing knits without an overlocker has always seemed too hard, but I wear t-shirts all the time, and I've been increasingly disappointed by the quality of the ones in the shops. It seems that whether you buy cheap or expensive ones they're made from nasty cotton that goes saggy after a few washes. The only ones that hold up with any reliability are my Petit Bateau ones and they are hard to get hold of (and come in limited styles - they are kids t-shirts, after all).

This one is made from some nice jersey I bought from The Fabric Store about a year ago - it has two layers, one side is a plain jersey and the other is patterned with tiny holes to make a polka dot pattern. I am sure there is a proper name for this kind of fabric, does anyone know? Anyway, it is very soft and cosy and I have lots of it because it was on sale and I bought the end of the bolt. The pattern is Kwik Sew 2965, View A. I was a bit suspicious about the dolman sleeve but it is cut well and drapes nicely, to make a baby batwing. The waist shaping is lovely too, and stops the top looking too much like gym wear. The dolman sleeve is a very inefficient way to cut fabric, but since I have so much of this blue stuff I don't really mind, and I'm getting used to having a seam along the top of my arm, which looked a bit strange at first. I don't really wear this shade of blue very often, because I wear a lot of denim so prefer something with more contrast, but I'm thinking I'll make this top again, maybe in a black and white stripe? I love stripey tops. Although then I'll have to be careful not to look too matchy matchy with the stroller.

Anyway, I was very relieved to discover that what everyone says is true - knits are easy to sew, and you CAN sew them without an overlocker. I read Suzie's guide to knits before I started, and that was very helpful. First I tried using the overcasting stitch on my machine but it was incredibly slow, so I did a narrow zig zag and then a wider one to finish the edges. Now I'm feeling less daunted I'm keen to try sewing some other knit things, I was looking through an old issue of Ottobre that has lots of great knit patterns that Milla or Ali could wear, and I want to try this hoodie pattern for Ali too.

Some other things:

I just saw My Afternoons with Margeuritte, it was very sweet. I love the Babes in Arms sessions at the cinema, although I fear I won't be able to go much longer because Milla is getting ready to crawl... she is doing push ups and rocking on her hands and knees and getting increasingly speedy at rolling and commando crawling. She has a special knack for commando crawling backwards & wedging herself under pieces of furniture.

I am nearly finished reading Freedom, it's taken a while because I lost momentum in the middle. The writing is fantastic but the characters are all so unlikeable that I don't always feel like spending time with them at the end of the day. But I'm back in to it now, and looking forward to finishing it. And to starting something new. I've borrowed The Secret Lives of Dresses from the library, which looks a bit lighter and will hopefully be a quick read.

I've been listening to the Electric Sheep podcast and really, really enjoying it. It's the first knitting podcast that I've clicked with. It does make me want to be in London though.Any other recommendations?

The weather is cooling off here which is lovely, but it's made me realise that I'm seriously short of clothes. I've been looking through the fabric stash trying to work out what I have already that could be made into useful things to wear. I've been browsing Ravelry too, trying to work out what I could knit that would be wearable and useful and - most importantly - quick to finish.

children's birthday cakes

 

The post I wrote years ago about the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake book still gets linked to all the time, which suggests that lots of other people love that book as much as me. So, as a kind of community service announcement, I thought I should let you know that it's been re-released - you can buy it here. There have been lots of new AWW books of children's cakes published in recent years, but I don't like any of them as much - they have lots of royal icing and lurid colouring. And there's just something nice about looking through the same book to make cakes for Ali (and now Milla) that Mum made my birthday cakes from as a child. I was slightly worried that when my brother and sister have children I might have to share Mum's old copy, but now that crisis has been averted ;)

country fair

We visited Moss Vale Show on the weekend. It's a mini-version of the Easter Show, but much better suited to small child attention span than the behemouth at Homebush. Friends from Sydney have escaped to the Highlands, so we stayed at their place the night before and got to the show bright and early. There were horses to watch, baby animals to pat, showbags to walk quickly past and, in the exhibition hall, fantastic displays of cake decorating, flower arranging and crafts. My personal favourite is the bizarre but quite skillful animal-made-out-of-vegetable category, in which competition was fierce.

Other things:

- I tried to buy the new Lisette patterns from Spotlight, but they're not available here yet so ordered them from the US. Hopefully they won't take too long to arrive. I haven't bought any clothes yet this year, and am doing an experiment to see how long I can go. The only thing I've bought since Milla was born is a denim shirt dress, and a couple of nursing bras. But now it's getting colder I don't have much to wear, so I'll need to sew some clothes if I'm going to stay out of the shops.

- I'm (slowly) reading Freedom and really enjoying it. Next on the list are Jasper Jones and The Finkler Question. Any other suggestions?

- Ali is OBSESSED with the movie of Fantastic Mr Fox and we are watching it almost daily. I don't really mind because (a) I loved all things Roald Dahl when I was little so it makes me happy to see him doing the same (b) the production quality is really high (c) it has George Clooney and (d) it is a break from Toy Story. I wish all childrens movies were directed by Wes Anderson.

japan in childrens books

When we lived in Tokyo I tried to find books about Japan for my nephew and nieces to help them understand where we were. The most popular was the First Book of Sushi, which became a real favourite in their house. It's a little board book with colourful collage pictures and a catchy rhyme about the different kinds of sushi. Apparently my niece became a very adventurous sushi eater, because she was keen to try all the things she's read about in the book.

My all-time favourite was Sayonara, Mrs. Kackleman, by the fabulous Maira Kalman. It's out of print now, but we tracked down a second hand copy on Amazon. It's about two children from New York who run away to Japan to escape their piano teacher, the notorious Mrs. Kackleman, and are shown around the country by their Japanese guide, Hiroko. It's notable for its fabulous illustrations, clear introduction to many things Japanese, and also for wacky lines like, "Hey Hiroko, are you loco? Would you like a cup of cocoa?" I don't know how much my nephew liked it, but the combination of educational and bizarre really appealed to me.

 

I still enjoy keeping an eye out for Japan-themed childrens books, and spotted some by Allen Say at the local library. Kamishibai Man and Tea With Milk are a both sweetly nostalgic, and give a glimpse into a long-gone Japan.

Tea with Milk is the story of how his parents met, and about being caught between two cultures. Kamishibai Man is about an old story-telling man who comes out of retirement to a newly busy city. I love his delicate watercolour illustrations.

 

Ali's favourite, which is referred to around here as "In Japan" (It's actually "Japan", from an old kids series called "Starter Places", published by Macdonald and Company in 1973), was a 50c Salvos find.

I love old reference books, especially ex-library ones (Remember library cards? And the date stamps? And card catalogues?), and this one has fantastic illustrations to boot.

It even has slightly macabre pictures of people fleeing natural disasters. Although the bit about no-one getting badly hurt in earthquakes is a fib.

Ali loves it, and asks for it over and over again. Bits of the book have been incorporated into his play, not always in a good way. Yesterday he was brandishing a knitting needle and shouting "Ken-DO!" 

I'd love to take him to visit Japan before too long, and I just hope he isn't disappointed by the lack of castles and samurai.

gum blossoms

So many gum trees in blossom right now. They look like mini fireworks. When I was little and living in the UK my grandparents sent over lots of Australian children's books, I think to remind us that we were Australian. So I read things like The Magic Pudding, Blinky Bill and - of course - Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. And also had lots of Ken Done style t-shirts with koalas on them.

Anyway, whenever I see gum blossoms it makes me think of the pretty little gumnut babies, and their beautiful hats and skirts. 

(Ragged Blossom picture from here. And the framed picture is a print of a Margaret Preston woodblock that my mum bought from the AGNSW shop and sent over when M & I were living in London - perhaps to remind us we were Australian?)

all my library holds came in at once

I went through my Amazon wishlist and reserved everything I could at the local library, and they all arrived at once. So now I have lots to read over the Christmas / New Year break. Some of these have been on the wishlist so long that I can't remember how I originally heard about them but they all look great so I am really excited.

They are:

Fun Home by Alison Bechel. I read this in a day and it was fantastic. I have passed it on to my brother, because he's having his wisdom teeth out on Monday and I think a smart graphic novel is the perfect recovery reading.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. I reserved this after Kate mentioned it. I'm half way through and enjoying it so much. I knew nothing at all about the Dominican Republic, so it's a bonus to pick up some history while reading a novel.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

The Mitford Girls by Mary S Lovell.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (according to Wikipedia it was originally written as part of NaNoWriMo)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

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It was my birthday yesterday, and I had a great day - flowers, cake, nice presents and dinner with friends. I'm 30 now, and feeling quite okay about that. Although I was shocked when I filled out a form this week and realised it would be my last time ticking the "20-29" box and that from now on I would be "30-39". Eek!

best book

 

I am still shocked by how little I have read since Ali was born. When we first lived in Tokyo I would finish a novel every couple of days. But that was when I spent much more time on public transport, didn't have English language television, and didn't knit. And didn't have a small person to chase around at home.

The novel I enjoyed most in 2009 would have to be The White Tiger. It just grabbed me right from the beginning, the narrator's voice is so direct and unwavering. And it was a real contrast to some of the other books set in India I have enjoyed reading, like The God of Small Things, Maximum City and Midnight's Children. And especially to A Fine Balance which, to be honest, I found an ordeal.

The Clothes on Their Backs and The Book Thief were great too.

I have decided to count unfinished books as part of my pre-Christmas tiding up of loose ends and unfinished projects, and am reading the ends of Lucky Jim and Helene Berr's Journal at the moment.

Does anyone have recommendations for what to read next? Which books did you love this year?